BAPTISM.
NECESSITY OF BAPTISM.
That Gospel baptism is necessary to salvation, is abundantly evidenced in the sacred writings. Christ, the highest authority known to man, asserted this most emphatically when he said to Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God;" John 3. 5.
So important did the Savior consider baptism, that when he went to John to be baptized, and John forbade him, he replied to him, "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness;" Matt. 3. 13-15. In this he taught John the doctrine that a fulness of righteousness or salvation, could not be received without it.
The prophet Nephi, who lived nearly 600 years before the birth of our Savior, clearly understood the necessity of baptism. Said he, "And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfil all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water;" 2 Nephi 31. 5.
The prophet Mormon, who lived nearly 1,000 years after Nephi, also taught the necessity of following the example of our Savior in being baptized, first, by water; Mormon 7. 10.
In the opening up of the latter-day dispensation, the Lord said to his prophet Joseph, "Whosoever believeth on my words them will I visit with the manifestation of my Spirit, and they shall be born of me, even of water and of the Spirit;" Doc. & Cov. 5. 16.
The Lord, in a revelation to Joseph Smith, Jun., and Sidney Rigdon, speaking of those who should be worthy to come forth in the resurrection of the just, says, "They are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his name and were baptized after the manner of his burial, being buried in the water in his name;" 76. 51.
Bible.